Fifa presidential challenger Mohamed Bin Hammam is considering striking a deal
with Michel Platini that would see him step aside in favour of the Uefa
president after just one four-year term if he is successful in his campaign
to unseat Sepp Blatter.

Deal: Mohamed Bin Hammam is considering a deal with Michel Platini over the Fifa presidency if he manages to unseat Sepp BlatterPhoto: AP

Bin Hammam is hoping to end Blatter’s 13-year tenure as Fifa president in June’s election, but as ever in Fifa his chances of doing so will depend on cutting deals.

Among the most important of these will be reaching an accommodation with Platini and the other confederation presidents who influence Fifa’s 208 voting members, including Jack Warner, who Bin Hammam says could play a decisive role.

Bin Hammam’s candidacy has left Platini facing a dilemma as he considers his own ambitions to stand for the Fifa presidency, which it is assumed he will do in 2015 if Blatter is returned. With Bin Hammam proposing to serve for eight years, Platini’s ambitions might be blocked, but the Qatari said yesterday he would consider a deal if it meant he won European backing as a result.

“I am not going to lie to you and say that I am not going to talk to Michel about possible co-operation in the future, this has to be put frankly,” Bin Hammam said. “I’m not telling you I am not going to do it, but let’s wait and see.

“Everybody has the right to an ambition but there is nothing to stop him [Platini] contesting in 2015, I am not blocking other people from coming. I’m 61 years old and have said to everyone that I have something to contribute. Mr Platini is maybe opposing me as he has the ambition to be president in 2015, but I have the ambition to be president in 2011. If we are not given the chance today, then when?”

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Bin Hammam was speaking on the eve of the Uefa Congress in Paris, at which Platini will be returned today for a second term as Uefa president. The event is set to be dominated by the politicking over the Fifa post, and Blatter arrived under greater pressure than at any time in the last nine years.

Tradition dictates that the Fifa president will address the Congress this morning but Bin Hammam, promising to reform Fifa’s procedures and its reputation, is hoping to make it his last such appearance.

“Whether people are angry with Blatter or not, I am offering a change. I am offering to change the governance of football,” he said. “I never saw Fifa as a corrupt organisation but maybe the lack of transparency, this is what people are attacking us for.

“At the end of the day we are an organisation that belongs to the public, it doesn’t belong to us. We have to make ourselves very clear to people. This is one of my missions for the future.”

Bin Hammam is hoping to generate support from the major European leagues and clubs who are increasingly frustrated at Fifa’s expansion of the international calendar. He already has fulsome support from the Premier League, whose chief executive, Richard Scudamore, spent time at his home in Doha earlier this year. He should also be able to count on the support of the Football Association following the humiliation of England’s World Cup bid, but in a classic example of the tensions at Wembley, there is some suspicion of the league’s close ties.

Bin Hammam said he would try to treat the club game “more fairly” but would not countenance cutting the number of friendly internationals.

“Over the years I have developed a good relationship with the Premier League and if I am president I will open the platform for the clubs to express themselves more fairly,” he said.

“I support the clubs and want them to be compensated and have the chance to express their views. Without the clubs you can do nothing. People will not wait four years to see a competition. But the clubs have to realise that without friendlies and unofficial matches the national associations will be bankrupted. You can’t let the clubs take everything so there have to be sufficient dates for the national associations to generate funds.”

Bin Hammam said he would also seek support from Warner, describing his influence over the 37 Concacaf votes as potentially decisive. “Traditionally they vote as a bloc, they have 37 votes and if they decide to vote together I think they can decide this,” he said.